Tag Archives: Heckel

Symphysodon discus

23. August 2019

The real or Heckel discus is maintained considerably more rarely in the aquarium than brown, blue or green discus and their sports and becomes as good as not at all bred. It is therefore only regularly available as a wild collected fish. At the moment we have some very nice, well-adjusted Heckel varieties in our stock.

The Heckel is just as color-variable as the other discus-types also, basically it looks like a Royal Blue with a broad center vertical bar. The animals are of course not beginner fish, but do not pose any unsolvable problems for advanced aquarists. They should be cared for in shoals of at least six, better eight to twelve animals. The aquarium must not be too brightly lit and should at least have fine sandy soils in places, so that the discus can pursue their typical search for food, the “blowing out” of food animals from the sand. Very important are humic substances from peat, alder cones, dead leaves etc., which strengthen the immune defense of the fish enormously. 

For our customers: we currently have Heckel from Rio Negro (code 73400), from Suncunduri (code 73406), blue-headed heckel from Rio Nhamunda (code 73408), from Mari Cross (code 73506), from Rio Madeira (code 73508) and Nova Olinda (code 73510). 

Please note that we only supply wholesalers.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer

Symphysodon discus „Heckel Nova Olinda“

16. March 2018

We are now in the last third of the current discus season. A particular charakter of this season is the comparably great number of extremely beautiful Heckel discus. We currently have a number of varieties in stock and want to feature them for you. But of course it is not that easy to take pictures of these beauties in their regular tanks in the fishhouse that have the quality these fish deserve; so it takes time…

But here nevertheless is the result of a first session: „Nova Olinda“. These gorgeous animals are also termed sometimes as „Heckel Cross“, because they exhibit features of Heckel discus as well as of Blue Discus. But it is rather unlikely that the fish are really hybrids. Much more likely the population is simply highly polychromatic, a well known phenomenon for example in dwarf cichlids (Apistogramma).

So each „Nova Olinda“ is an individiual beauty on its own. Many specimens have a canary yellow forehead, others are typical Blue headed Heckel, again others look almost like solid turquoise discus – amazing animals!

For our customers: Heckel Cross Nova Olinda 12-15 cm have code 735105, Heckel Nova Olinda 9-12 cm code 735084. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholsale trade.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer

Discus Heckel Cross Jatapu

20. February 2017

The high season for wild collected discus starts around October and ends in April. Nevertheless, good wild collected discus are available the whole year throught! Some varieties are in general very rarely offered, a good example are the so called Heckel Cross from the Rio Jatapu. They are real beauties! The out-of-season summer discus have a great advantage: they are even healthier and even more stable than the comparatively fresh collected animals available during the high season!

For our customers: the Heckel Cross from the Rio Jatapu have code 735046 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer